July 22 -Ride #2 "rolling"

After a weekend at the cabin, we returned to the heat of our home Sunday and spent what felt like the majority of the afternoon installing Skype on my phone so Gray's brother J's kids in NC could see Sherlock in semi-person. I could not get access to my existing account through my iPhone, so now I have an account on the laptop and one on the computer- I can Skype myself now.
Sherlock did well on Skype. I groomed him, including a little extra hoof attention since the farrier was due the next day. Then I free-lunged him in the round pen, walk, trot and canter very calm and good for the voice commands while Grayson narrated for the rapt audience.

Today I went out a little later in the morning than usual with the plan to ride before the farrier arrived. Practiced with Sherlock's feet a little extra, gave him a good all-over grooming -really getting used to being touched everywhere. Very relaxed. I saddled him up and put on the leather English bridle and got it fitted with lots of tugging, unbuckling and rebuckling. It's not a really great fit- might be a Cob size. Maybe next time the English hackamore.
Did a few minutes walk/trot free lunging, with an extra shout to keep him from rolling with the saddle on. Felt-bottom pad moved less but not enough wither relief.

Anyway, I got the chair out and just swung up. He stood there getting lots of pets on the neck while I tightened the girth a bit, and turned to look at my right foot a few times. Did pushing passenger a minute or two, then started steering more so we could get both directions. He likes the safeness of the gate so we were doing a figure-8 using towards the gate for getting a nice stretch, when he decided to lie down. I hadn't quite figured out what he was doing until his knees were on the ground!

Up top! So tall!

I shook the reins and gave him a kick and he skittered off with the reins both on the right side of his head! I went to my one-rein stop and once he came back a bit I remembered to stand up, and he settled into an excited but manageable trot, then a walk, and I got the reins rearranged.

After all that excitement I was hardly nervous about doing some more trotting, I just stayed in two-point and we trotted both directions just fine. I brought him into the center and asked him to stop, less spiralling needed today, and hopped off. Lots of love and a mint for Sherlock! I removed the saddle and bridle and took them to the tack rack while he followed me and I told him to go roll someplace.

The saddle sweatmarks are not bad with maybe some small drier areas. Different pad with a bit more cushion and wither relief shape needed.

I took him back to his corral and gave him a little grazing time while I hosed his back down. He didn't seem to mind that much at all. Then a little sweat-scraper and fly sheet back on. Finally he's ready again to roll and got good and dusty. The farrier arrived and pulled his front shoes and trimmed him up all around. He seems to have very nice strong hooves, the right front frog is a little odd but with no shoes for a little bit we'll see how it settles. He did very well for her, and she thanked me for doing my homework and said he was a pleasure to work with today.  I am pretty proud of myself today